The Five Powers
by DrTaylor
Summary: What was Angel really about? The Powers that Be. What was their mission? What was their reason for all the things they had Angel do? And who are they? Read to find out. This story has been completed. Thank you for the great reviews!
1. Prologue

First things first.

This story and it's characters belong to Joss Whedon, not DrTaylor.

Now, a word about this story. I would caution you to turn back if you can't handle paradoxes. In fact, if Terminator makes no sense to you, don't bother with this story. In fact, unless you understand every paradox in the Star Trek universe, don't bother with this story.

That said, I'm pretty proud of it.

* * *

It was just what the Powers had waited for.

Thousands of years of careful planning, and millions of warriors later, the pieces were all in place.

In the higher planes, the Five waited and watched as the world unfolded. They were beyond time, but they were also beyond the pain they had experienced in their lives. Powerless to influence individual events, they could only shift the currents, the flow of events as they steered the people they needed into the places they would have to be.

Sometimes the people surprised them. The Five Powers that Be had never thought of turning all the Potentials at once. That had never been in the plan.

But it suited their needs quite well.

And so they waited, and used Angel to manipulate Wolfram and Hart. And the Wolf, Ram, and Hart took the bait. And so they handed their power to Angel, and the Five waited.

And when Angel was lost, they woke Cordelia.

Cordelia's body was ruined, and so would never work again. But the Powers were able to give her thoughts substance and return her to her friends to pass along the visions to the one who was to be left behind. After all, there was only one vision left.

And Angel understood.

It took him two months to infiltrate the Cirlce – fifty-seven years less than three of the Powers had bet. Of course, when you have no possessions, all bets are meaningless. But the one who arrived First loved being a bookie.

Each of the Powers get one chance – one time when they can walk the Earth.

All the pieces are in place. And today is the day.


	2. Power the Second: Two

Okay, so here is the real story. Not just that Prologue crap (my first ever prologue. Go me!)

This is a complete story, so updates will occur pretty quickly. Should be over in about a week or so.

Enjoy.

I should reiterate that linear time doesn't really exist in this story. The order of events will reflect that.

* * *

It was the Second Power who returned to walk the earth second, in a small town in Brazil.

She entered the house next to the river silently, which had not been her way when she was alive, but things had changed a great deal since she died three weeks before.

The girl she had come to talk to had changed a great deal as well. The Power had seen her just a year or so ago, but that had been very different circumstances, and the Power's body was not under her own control. Of course, that was all changed now.

The Power had waited until Kennedy was out of the house before paying her visit, because she didn't want complications. Besides, Kennedy was annoying and kind of creepy, and she only hoped Willow would notice that soon. Watching them was a pain in the neck, when the Power had a neck.

Willow noticed as soon as the Power crossed the threshold, of course. She seemed taller – or maybe it was just because she knew how to wear heels now. Or possibly the better haircut. In any case, Willow had finally gotten over the softer side of Sears – and not a moment too soon.

"Cordelia?"

Still sounded like Willow, though. Like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, once she turned around. Cordy grinned. "Hey!"

When they hugged, Cordy took a moment to wonder at the fact that despite the way they hated each other, once, they were now happy to see each other. Of course, out of everyone (and she watched them all the time) she and Will had probably changed the most since high school. What with Willow gone all Witchy and Cordy being a higher being – for real this time.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you in L.A? I thought you were still in the hospital!"

_And thanks so much, Angel, for mentioning that I was dead to the people I've known all my life!_ "Well, obviously not, huh? I need to talk to you."

Willow sobered. "Sure, I guess. What's up?"

They sat down on the truly hideous sofa (picked out by Kennedy, Cordy hoped, and made a mental note to look at that moment in time later) and Cordy told Willow her part in the plan. "You know I got those visions, right? Well, I had one that you can help me with."

Willow nods, and Cordy regrets having to stretch the truth. But Willow doesn't need to know about Cordy being dead, or exactly what Angel's going to have to do in a few months to make it all work. All she knew was that this is how it works, has worked, will work. Whatever.

"In a few months, the Senior Partners at Wolfram and Hart are going to launch their apocalypse army against Angel. He'll do something to piss them off, and it'll be so bad that they'll have no choice but to launch the apocalypse early. That's a big problem for them, because their other pieces aren't in place yet. That army isn't supposed to be used for years. Whatever Angel's going to do, it'll delay the end of the world by hundreds or thousands of millenia."

She sees Willow blink at the extreme timeline. In fact, the Partners will never have another opportunity, and Cordy knows it, but she would prefer not to reveal to Willow what she is or how she knows. That part comes later, after Willow and all her contemporaries are forgotten dust.

"Your part is to stop the army from being able to do any actual damage." There was only one way for Willow to do this and it involves playing with time and space. Plus, Astral projection that she'd have to learn in Nepal, making it impossible to save Fred. Regrettable, but there it is. Fred was necessary for multiple reasons.

"Well, how am I supposed to do that?" asked Willow. "Just because they say I'm all powerful and stuff doesn't mean I can eradicate an entire army full of demons."

Cordelia's only response was to sit and wait.

"I mean, I suppose I could always just freeze them and we could take our time killing them, but do you have any idea how many Slayers we'd...of course, we do have a lot of slayers and an apocalypse army definitely falls in their job description, but...Hey, isn't Angel evil now?"

This sounded more to Cordelia like the Willow of old than Willow had sounded in years, but she decided not to voice that particular sentiment.

Willow was off on another tangent entirely, puzzling out exactly how one could freeze a bubble of demons that big. Eventually she decided the only way to do that was to be in several places at once. "Of course, the only way to do that would be to divide my astral self, but I don't really know anything about astral projection... I suppose I could learn. There's these monks in Nepal..."

"Willow," Cordelia broke in, "I get that you're excited, but how do you plan to eradicate them? Any slayer inside the bubble will be frozen with the demons."

That's the point of her being here, after all. Willow could come up with the rest of this plan in her sleep, given enough warning, and from Willow's point of view the plan had already begun.

"Good point... maybe we could send them partway into another dimension? That way there wouldn't be any problem getting to them. The trick is to keep them physical enough to kill while I'm doing it. I'd hate for it to be like that Star Trek episode. You know, the one where they had those people walking through walls?"

Cordelia nodded, smiling to herself.

Willow suddenly looked straight into Cordelia's eyes. "You're not human anymore." And suddenly she didn't sound at all like she had as a child when they had been friends. Willow was back to being whatever she was now.

Cordelia had never watched this part. She'd had no warning this was coming. "I got turned into a part demon," she finally said, falling back on the old standby.

"No, I mean, you've changed. You're not even really physical... you died!" Willow frowned. "But I can tell you still work for the side of good. Your aura... it's... wow."

"Yeah," Cordelia replied. "I'm a higher being. For real this time and everything. Don't tell anyone."

Willow nodded, still staring into the complexities of Cordelia's aura. "I can see that. It all depends on the Partners never knowing what you want to do." She squinted into a particularly bright thread of aura. "I'm just one little piece, aren't I?"

Cordelia shrugged. "Yes and no. You're one piece, and your job really isn't that big, but if this is going to work, you are the key."

Willow looked straight into Cordy's eyes. "Does it work?"

Cordy couldn't hold back her answer. "It can."


	3. Power the Fourth: Three

Okay, so here's chapter two and now we're really out of linear time with someone who's not dead yet coming back from the grave.

Remember: time is mutable.

All the usual, this doesn' t belong to me. Joss can have it and everything I own except my eternal soul. I know better than to mess with those.

* * *

"Remember those days at the Watcher's Academy when you made the underclassmen get up as girls and watched them frolic about?" Rupert Giles turned at the unexpected voice. "That sure has changed."

Giles had been watching the students of the Slayer and Watcher Academy from the window of his office. Funnily enough, he had not been paged about a visitor, heard a knock on his door, or seen the reflection of anyone entering. Wesley was behind him now though. Or at least, what Wesley would look like if he had stopped looking like such a ponce, something Giles would never have believed was possible before today.

"I remember," he replied, "but you're only saying that to prove it's really you."

That was their last conversation before Buffy fired Wesley, really. The only time he had felt that they had anything in common at all. Looking at Wesley now, he could see that being Buffy's watcher must have been good for him too. The arrogance seemed to be stripped away, and the younger man appeared almost humble.

Wesley stepped closer to the glass, squinting through the sunlight. "You refused to help Angel when he called."

_Of course I did,_ Giles almost responded, but he held his tongue and waited.

"At the time, I was furious," Wesley continued after a moment. "You were allowing the only thing I loved to die through your inaction. But now I see it was for the best. The Powers meant it to be. In any case, I'm here to tell you what happens next."

Unbelievable. "You're here to give me an order?"

But Wesley only shook his head. "No. I'm here to tell you what will happen in Los Angeles seven days from now. Or rather, where to look to find it. If you read the codex Angel retrieved for you just before the Master rose eight years ago, you'll find a prophecy about a time of many warriors."

Giles' mind skipped ahead to the appropriate passage. "Yes, I remember. 'For in this time of strife the Slayer shall find many warriors and they will wage a battle against evil the likes of which has never been seen.'"

"Right. That. So, Buffy activated all the slayers and the world has never been less safe for vampires. And what does the codex say next?"

Giles closed his eyes, visualizing the page. "It says... 'And one champion shall burn the thorns of injustice and bring forth an army to be destroyed. And the Slayer and her warriors shall vanquish the army and the lines will be redrawn.'" He thought for a moment. "Angel... is the champion?" Wesley shrugged.

"Probably," he replied, "but I can't know for sure. There is... another. But there is a prophecy that speaks of a vampire with a soul that plays a key role in the apocalypse and when it's over becomes human again."

"And you think that's Angel?"

"He's going to do what it says in the Codex. And then the army will be unleashed against him in revenge. In seven days."

BABABABA

Wesley took his time strolling through the campus, watching the students running between classes.

It was a stroke of genuis to have the Slayers and Watchers in school together. If there was one thing Wesley regretted – well, more than what happened to Fred, or for that matter how long it took to get together with Fred, or kidnapping Connor, it was what had happened with Buffy. And it was all because of the way the Watcher's Council had operated. Wes could see now that it was only a matter of time before one of the Slayers rebelled against one of the Watchers.

Besides, the way things worked out he got to help fight evil for five years before dying in the service of good. Not so bad at all. Plus, he had a beautiful – and these days, very powerful – girl by his side. That was all that mattered.

And being a higher power was way cooler than that collapsible sword thing he'd had back in the day.


	4. Power the Fifth: One

This was the toughest chapter to write, so my apologies if it's not very good.

As always, it's not mine. It's never mine.

I've gotten several confused reviews, so I am going to emphasize again that linear time is pretty much a no-show in this story. That means that the chapters are not in order, the Powers aren't necessarily dead yet, and the timing may not make much sense. If you need a good reference, look at the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They spend two hours explaining this concept. If you're having trouble with this, I would recommend one of two options. You could stop reading or you could just accept the fact that the timing is off, trust that I realize that and it was intentional, and live with it.

Read on!

* * *

Xander was sitting alone in his room when the Fifth Power came in. Didn't knock. Didn't even have to open the door. This higher power thing was pretty cool. Just pop on in, and there you are. 

Of course, he might have just been enjoying it since it was his only chance to be physical ever again.

The man he had come to see – Xander Harris – was someone he had never met. Didn't really matter, of course. They were the same. Or at least had been the same.

"You're Xander, right?" he asked the man slouched in the chair with a bottle of beer in his hand.

The man looked up to see his visitor. "Who are you?"

"Gunn," the Power replied, wondering if Angel had ever mentioned him. Xander squinted drunkenly at his visitor for a moment, then shrugged and handed over a bottle.

In the two weeks since the First was beaten in Sunnydale, Xander had spent more and more time drunk. Not that the Power could really blame him. When Fred died, the only thing that had stopped him from going out and getting himself really really drunk (or dead) was being tied to a hospital bed and guarded against further attack by Wesley.

Wesley had, luckily, been out getting drunk and was unable to finish what he'd started.

Gunn took a drink of the beer. Pretty bad beer, but he couldn't guess Xander was in any mood to be picky right now. Lucky for Xander, that was why he was there.

Xander spoke first. "I don't know who you are, but the name's familiar."

Gunn nodded. "Angel probably mentioned me. I worked for him in LA."

Xander scowled. "You know he was there?"

Gunn pretended to be taken aback by this, but he knows exactly what Xander is talking about. "What?"

"Yeah. He came to Sunnydale to help, but then he left. He should have stayed. If he had stayed, there would have been someone to help control the Ubervamps, and Anya..." he trailed off.

"Wouldn't have died." Gunn finished. Xander looked up from the bottom of the beer bottle he'd been contemplating. "You know, Xander, you're not the only one who's lost someone twice."

Xander looked at Gunn, and for a second they saw each other in each others' eyes. "But I could have done more to -"

"You couldn't leave Dawn. She and Andrew would both be dead. And Andrew is necessary."

The beer bottle Xander had been holding smashed into the wall directly next to Gunn's head. "Don't say that! You don't know – she should have lived, she deserved to live, it's not right, it's not fair..."

Gunn grabbed Xander by the shoulders. "That's right. She deserved to live, and Andrew didn't. And that's life, so that's who lived. Besides, there is someone who can honor her."

"Who?"

"You."

Hours later, Xander Harris had passed out on his bed. Gunn didn't know what he would remember of that night, but he knew that without this visit this night, Xander would never go to Africa, never defeat D'Hoffryn, and most importantly that the world would never survive the apocalypse.


	5. Power the Third: Four

Okay. It's not mine.

I've been getting some pretty confused reviews, so let me emphasize that cause does not always precede effect in this story. If you have a hard time with, say, Terminator, or you haven't watched the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I wouldn't worry about trying to follow the timeline. Just trust that I know it's off. And it's intentional.

I would also like to address a review I got that expressed confusion about Wes and Gunn trying to prevent their own deaths. The goal of these visits is not to prevent anything we saw in Not Fade Away. The goal is to have an effect on what happens next, after Angel decides he wants to slay the dragon and the screen goes black and millions of fans scream, "What?!?!" The Powers have bigger concerns than saving mere mortals, and once they get to the other side, they see that more clearly.

Now, on with the story.

* * *

This was definitely not Texas. 

For one thing, the weather was entirely too wet. The Third Power wasn't sure what she had expected, but a big ol' bog was definitely not it. Venice was supposed to be all fancy and beautiful, not smelly and more than a little slimy.

Why on Earth the Slayer would choose to vacation here was beyond her.

The Power walked over yet another bridge over another reeking canal and into the famous St. Mark's square. There was a cafe where Buffy would be sitting in the shade, waiting for the Immortal. Sadly, the Immortal would be held up by a boat engine that would conveniently refuse to start on another island. Sometimes it was pretty useful to have control of things like that.

Buffy was seated exactly where she should be, and the Power regarded her for a second. She remembered once being jealous of this girl, the Slayer, for Angel's devotion to her. Of course, that was before Wesley. Or Charles for that matter. And also before she died.

Now she could see the past and the future and all the things that made it plain that Buffy was perfect for Angel and Angel for Buffy. Of course, the trick was to get Buffy to see that.

Buffy didn't look up as the Power approached, but the Power could tell Buffy knew she was there, so she wasn't surprised when the other girl spoke. "Did you think you were all stealthy? Because you aren't."

Fred sat down across from Buffy, shaking her head. "I'm just here to talk to you. It's important."

The Slayer did look up now, frowning. "I'm trying to have a nice, normal vacation."

Fred shrugged. "You still can. This will just take a second. I just need to tell you something."

"About what?"

"Angel."

That simple word cause a physical reaction in Buffy. In fact, it caused Buffy grab Fred by the arm and drag her out of the square and into a small side alley. "What about him?"

Fred ignored the pain Buffy was inflicting on her body. It was just a body she would never use again, after all. "I work with him in L.A. I heard what Andrew told him when the Slayers came to take Dana."

"What about it?" Buffy asked. "He's taken over an evil law firm. I can't trust him."

But Fred just shook her head. "You can."

"He told me! He said I couldn't trust the source he was getting his info from, and now he works for them -"

"Buffy, he's given up the chance to be human to save your life. You remember that, don't you?"

"I'm not supposed to. I didn't, until after I died."

"Right, well, what you don't know at all is that if he manages to defeat Wolfram and Hart, he can become human. And the only chance he has to beat them is to do it from the inside. And in precisely one week, he'll have done his part, and it'll be time for you to do yours."

"And what exactly is my part?"

"You show up in Los Angeles with as many Slayers as you can and Willow and Xander, ready to fight the last battle you'll ever have to face."

"What do you mean 'the last battle'?"

Fred squared her shoulders and looked Buffy straight in the eyes. "The battle that will disable all the major evil forces in the world for longer than you'll be alive."

Buffy took a moment to mull that over. "No more apocalypses?"

Fred just nodded.


	6. Power the First: Five

It's not mine

Okay, folks. This is the last chapter, followed by an epilogue. I hope you've all enjoyed this trip into the weirder side of my imagination. It's the first time I've totally created an ending - even in my Harry Potter work, all the clues were there. So thanks to Joss Whedon for making this story so great that I had to continue it - I hope someday I have a tenth of your genuis, Joss.

* * *

The plan, of course, was simple. Buffy and Willow had realized that no matter how many Willows surrounded the army to cast the spell, they would still have to corral the minions of the senior partners together in one area. So that job was left to the Slayers. Willow would use her astral projection combined with the spell to phase the demons out of reality ever so slightly, drawing power from one who had been permanently wounded in the service of good, as required by the spell. Of course, Willow thought she was just weakening the army enough for the Slayers to kill it. The truth was, they wouldn't have to.

The First Power stepped out of the nothingness he had lived in for the last five years and stood next to his only living friend as the dragon in front of him suddenly froze.

"You know, it's been a real good fight."

Angel turned and looked at Doyle, surprised. "I thought only Wolfram and Hart kept their minions enslaved for all eternity."

Doyle shook his head. "I'm not enslaved. You wanted to know who the Powers that Be are? Well, that's us."

"Us?"

"You know, all the people who should have had more of a chance to help you with this fight but didn't. Me, Cordy, Fred, Wesley, and Gunn."

"Gunn's not dead," Angel pointed out.

Doyle shrugged. "He will be. Can't be helped. Besides, he's more useful as a Power than as a human. We need him."

"So what happens now?" asked Angel.

"Now, we finish what we started."

Doyle turned his head toward the frozen army. The apocalypse that was to be unleashed could not be unleashed without this army. An army that had taken an eternity to build. Suddenly, it was gone.

"You were trying to get to the army," Angel stated, realizing for the first time what the last five years were about. "That was what all this was about. We had to get into a position to piss off the Senior Partners so they would try to attack us with everything they had... all so you could get at it and kill it."

"Not just kill it. It had to be wiped out of existence. Way more than killing."

Angel turned back toward the others, and realized that they were frozen in time behind him. "Just a little sleight of hand," Doyle said. "Now listen, because I don't have a lot of time. When the Circle of the Black Thorn made you sign the prophecy, that was just misdirection. They needed you to believe you could never be human, but it wasn't actually true. So now it's up to you – if you still want your reward, you should head straight down the alley to the other end and wait for what comes next."

But Angel shook his head. "Gunn's dying. I can't just leave him -"

"He can come back with me. He's suffered enough."

And Doyle and Gunn faded away.


	7. Epilogue

Thanks for the memories folks. I don't own it, and I don't want to. Enjoy.

* * *

Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan hadn't intended to go to the alley that night.

The plan had actually been to head for Mexico. Sun, sand, and beautiful women. And also far far away from law firms. And the entertainment industry. And Angel.

But awfully close to Texas. So then the plan had been to go to Canada. But that was too snowy.

Eventually Lorne figured he might as well just go keep an eye on things and then get out of dodge after the battle was over and done with, so he could make sure that someone saw the end. After all, someone had to make sure his friends didn't fade away.

But he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

First, it was about what he figured. Giant horde of demons running straight down the alley. And the next moment, they were gone, just like that. And looking closer, he could see that so was Gunn. Weird.

And then Angel started down the alley at the same time a whole crowd of girls started up it, and was that – Faith? Right in front of the crowd. And who was with her? Buffy?

It had to be Buffy. Lorne doubted that Angel would use quite that much tongue to say hello to anyone else.

And then there were five figures standing in a circle around Buffy and Angel, and they began to chant.

"Five are without life, yet they live."

Lorne squinted at them. They seemed to be bathed in light, but he could make out the one facing him. A dark-haired man, shorter than the average human. Wouldn't have lasted two seconds in Pylea.

"Five are without breath, yet they live."

And he could see the woman next to him, who seemed alight with happiness. He would know her anywhere. Cordelia.

"Five are without body, yet they live."

And beside Cordelia was Freddikins, grinning and giggling as she recited the words along with the rest.

"Five are without time, yet they live"

Fred glanced to the figure next to her, and Lorne could see that it was Wesley, but not the broken shell of a man they'd had to deal with the last few months. This man had never known the pain of losing someone he loved for no good reason.

"From the ashes of these five, one will be restored."

Gunn looked up from the circle just long enough for Lorne to see that the customary defeat the man wore was gone, as if life had finally stopped handing him bad breaks.

But what happened next was way better than any of the rest had been.

Angel collapsed to the ground, and then slowly stood up again. Buffy put out her hand and touched his chest, right above his heart. And slowly, a grin wider than Lorne had thought was possible for a human broke out on her face.


End file.
